Occupy McMaster rebuilding

Dr. Karl Andersson, a Swedish scholar who was visiting to look through the Bertrand Russell archives in Mills Library, was a regular presence at Occupy McMaster.

When members of Occupy McMaster arrived at their space in the corner of the Student Centre on Tuesday, Sept. 18, they didn’t know what had happened.

Lori Diamond, administrative director of the Student Centre, didn’t know either.

Siobhan Stewart, president of the McMaster Students Union, said she saw that Occupy was still set up in the corner of the student centre when she left late on Monday night.

But Tuesday morning – the day after the one-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street – the area was cleared out. The books, the furniture, the blankets, the pamphlets, the posters and all of the other items that has collected since Occupy began spending time on the MUSC couches last November was gone.

Representatives of Occupy met with McMaster Security Services Tuesday morning in hopes of getting to the bottom of the matter. Security Services said they would check security tapes.

“We do have a theft report, and it is with our investigator right now,” said Cathy O’Donnell, Staff Sergeant of Security Services, on Wednesday.

“It’s a temporary setback for the student movement,” said Alvand Mohtashami, who was one of the founders of the group last November.  “But we are organizing to build a culture of revolution.”

The MUSC space was relatively empty over the summer months, but now that September has come, students are coming together again to get Occupy McMaster back up and running.

They’ve added a couple of tables and some pamphlets, and they are trying to be more vigilant.

“I’ll be back as soon as possible and support the occupiers, whose existence and presence is necessary to the survival of the idea of the university as a place of unhampered pursuit of the truth, wrote Dr. Karl Andersson, who is currently back in Sweden, in a comment on TheSil.ca.

Andersson, a grey-haired scholar who was studying the Bertrand Russell archives in Mills Library, was a regular presence at Occupy last school year, and he helped to maintain a 24-hour watch.